Short, personal, and opinionated views on books, movies, and TV.

Nobel

This is one of a group of Norwegian TV series now available in subtitled form on Netflix. Unlike Occupied, a political thriller set in a dystopian near future (which I also liked), this series is set firmly in the present. The protagonist is a member of a Norwegian special forces team deployed to Afghanistan. Home on leave, he finds himself in the middle of a political firestorm, pitting Norway’s image of itself as a liberal, peace-loving democracy against the realities of a war zone. (The title refers to the Nobel Peace Prize, which unlike the other awards is administered in Norway; the politics of the award form a minor subplot in the storyline). The acting and writing quality of this show is pretty high. I particularly liked the scene in which the protagonist tells his 10-year old son what his job really is, and how that squares with his Norwegian liberal values — it had an emotional honesty that is rare in any movie or TV production, no matter what the country. The Norwegian scenery is pretty cool, too.